Job Application for Director of Customer Engagement, Battery Storage at Sparkfund

About Sparkfund

Sparkfund is the deployment services company utilities rely on to take DERs from grid edge to grid core.

With over a decade of experience as a utility services company, Sparkfund has pioneered a smarter approach to deploying distributed assets as part of a fast-growing grid. Through its Distributed Capacity Procurement (DCP) model, Sparkfund enables utilities to plan, deploy, and dispatch DERs at the scale and pace necessary to meet load growth demand and unlock the full value of the grid. We support program design, assessment of DER grid value, host engagement, and value chain management to ensure on-time, on-budget deployment of distributed resources with maximum grid value and lowest cost.

With more than 3,500 projects deployed across 43 states and more than 300MW of energized assets constructed, Sparkfund is transforming buildings into a valuable extension of the grid for the benefit of our society.

Position Summary

Sparkfund is seeking a Customer Engagement Director, Battery Storage to build and manage relationships with prospective and existing distributed energy resource (DER) customers, including commercial property owners, tenants, neighbors, facility managers, and other critical stakeholders. As part of the Sparkfund deployment team, this role is essential in driving customer participation, developing site pipelines, and ensuring smooth onboarding and long-term satisfaction across Sparkfund’s programs.

This role is ideal for a leader who thrives on relationship-building, has experience in customer success or business development in energy markets, and can think strategically while executing tactically. Your work will be instrumental in delivering trusted, reliable, and impactful partnerships that expand the reach and success of Sparkfund’s programs, from first-of-a-kind deployments to scaling up the approach across North America.

This role will be instrumental in positioning Sparkfund as a leader in customer-centric solutions within the energy transition sector. This role offers a unique opportunity for those who thrive on leading and delivering commercial growth, innovating on products and services, solving dynamic problems, embracing challenges, and are personally and professionally passionate about building and leading high-performing teams.

Location

Sparkfund is a remote-friendly company with a digital workplace built around emerging hub-offices; however applicants for this role must be based in, or near, Minneapolis, MN. There will be required in-person meetings and travel up to 33% of the time, including meetings within the Minneapolis, Denver, and Washington, DC areas as well as meetings in other parts of the continental US to be determined. These meetings will include visits to utility customer offices and project sites as well as scheduled team and company gatherings to collaborate with other members of the team / company, learn the ins and outs of our business, and contribute to our company culture.

Please note that this role may require evening and weekend hours to ensure coverage at stakeholder meetings and events as necessary.

Key Responsibilities

Customer Relationship Strategy: Develop and lead the strategy to attract, engage, and retain customer partners that meet the requirements of Sparkfund’s programs.
Pipeline Development: Identify prospects and move through the site customer recruitment funnel by cultivating relationships and lead communication with prospective customers to support deployment targets and program design needs.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with marketing, legal, deployment, engineering, program management, project management, and regulatory teams to streamline customer onboarding, contracting, and ongoing communications.
Messaging & Value Propositions: Refine customer-facing messaging, materials, and communications to convey the benefits of site customer participation effectively.
Market & Segment Analysis: Understand customer personas, industry segments, easement contracting best practices, and regional trends to inform engagement strategy.
Voice of the Customer: Serve as the internal champion of customer needs and experiences, feeding insights back into product design, deployment planning, and utility coordination.

Required Skills & Qualifications

Experience: 8+ years of experience in customer-facing roles such as sales, partnerships, or customer success, ideally in the energy, infrastructure, or real estate sectors.
Communication: Outstanding written and verbal communication skills; able to influence and inspire a diverse range of stakeholders.
Relationship Building: Proven track record of building trust-based relationships and managing complex partnerships over time.
Strategic Thinking: Strong analytical and market understanding; able to assess and prioritize segments and geographies.
Technical Literacy: Familiarity with DER technologies and utility-customered programs.
Travel Flexibility: Willingness to travel frequently to customer sites and industry events.

Preferred Skills & Qualifications

Industry Knowledge: Knowledge of energy markets, DER technologies, and utility contracting models.
Regulatory Understanding: Comfort working within a regulatory environment and understanding compliance or permitting requirements at the site level.
Marketing Collaboration: Experience working with marketing teams on co-branded or external campaigns.
CRM Proficiency: Familiarity with Salesforce, HubSpot, or similar CRM systems to track customer pipeline and interactions.

Benefits

For full-time positions:

Competitive compensation and stock option plans - we believe in shared ownership

The anticipated On-Target Earnings (OTE) for this position is between $125,000 - $250,000 per year.

Comprehensive benefits package including medical, vision, and dental insurance as well as disability and life insurance
401(k) plan with a 2% employer match.
Flexible vacation policy encouraging strong work life balance and paid time away. We also observe all federal holidays
Alternating 4 day weeks, with every other Friday off
12 weeks gender-neutral paid leave for caregivers when they have a new addition to their families and an additional 4 weeks of paid leave for birthing parents
A one-time, work-from-home stipend to help cover any equipment, hardware, etc. you need to set up your remote office
A monthly allowance of $100 to help cover phone and WiFi expenses

We Want You To Know

You can be a great candidate even if you don't fit everything we've described above. You can also have important skills we haven't thought of. If that's you, don't hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself. We are dedicated to environmental stewardship, and recognize we need diverse perspectives to successfully tackle this massive challenge. To change the world, we must first change ourselves, which is why Sparkfund has created a space that sources viewpoints from people who look and think differently.

We are committed to diversity and building an equitable and inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and experiences, and we're taking steps to meet that commitment. Sparkfund is an Equal Opportunity Employer and provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. Sparkfund will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records consistent with federal, state, and local legal requirements.

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Director of Customer Engagement, Battery Storage